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Failing 3 GHz Pentium IV - More Findings
Summary: In two previous posts, I detailed the situation with a hard working and reliable PC I have had for over 20 years, which is now failing in an increasingly erratic manner. This post provides an update on my steps to date to recover it, as the probable root cause identified in the last update - a failing power supply - has turned out not to be the issue after all. Post Body: My 2003-vintage, then cutting edge PC, a 3.0 GHz Pentium IV with 1 GB of dual channel RAM, an nVidia GeForce4 Ti-4200 graphics card, a 120 GB IDE hard drive and two integrated Iomega drives (a ZIP-250 and a Jaz 2GB) has become pretty much unusable, freezing up after a variable but short amount of run time, rarely exceeding 5 minutes. In my last post on this topic, I had zeroed in on what appeared to be a failing power supply - the 5v was more like 2v, not 5v, and that clearly needed fixing. I ordered a new power supply, installed it and resumed testing. Results? EXACTLY the same. 5'ish minutes of run time and then the machine freezes up. As testing has progressed, the boot sector of the main hard drive appears to have become corrupted AND Windows XP now believes that it has not been activated and won't run anymore! I attempted to reactivate it, but it seems that the activation servers are no longer online. My Windows XP install may therefore be "toast", rather like Photoshop CSx, where the activation servers are no longer accessible, resulting in legally owned software that can no longer be used. With the power supply, the CPU, the video card and ALL of the other cards "cleared" as potential sources of the issue (at one point I had the machine stripped down to just the CPU, the video card and the floppy) there were only two obvious sources of this sort of fault left: a failure on the motherboard or faulty RAM modules. I started with the RAM modules. There were 2 of them, each 512 MB, for 1 GB total of RAM (which was a LOT in 2003). I ordered two new modules, each 1 GB this time (might as well upgrade while I am at it!). I installed the new RAM modules and fired up the machine yet again. Yet again it ran partially through the POST diagnostics and then froze. Eventually, after multiple restarts, it got through the POST and actually booted Windows XP to the point where it was far enough along to complain about not being activated! Shortly thereafter the machine froze again! Clearly, the RAM is not the issue either! So, all that is left is the motherboard. I will review the manual for jumper settings and check that all is well on that front, and I will scan the board for any physical issues, for example a capacitor that has "blown up", and see if there is ANYTHING I can fix. If not, the last thing I can do is replace the motherboard and that is an expensive and time consuming effort. As a result, if it turns out to be necessary, it will be deferred to a future time. So... that is where things stand at this point. I fear that this hard working machine of nearly 20 years may have reached the end of its useful life. We shall see... Further updates as things progress! |
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